Parenthood

Why is parenthood an adventure?

If parenthood came with a GPS, it would mostly just say “RECALCULATING”.

— Simon Holland

Unless you grew up with a baby in your house, most people don't have much experience of what life with a newborn is like. And it can be very different to how it's portrayed in movies, on TV or Instagram. More, ummm....real.

So becoming parents, for most couples, is kind of like a leap of faith.

Which is the beginning of any worthwhile adventure.

Added to that, you're likely to find there's plenty of advice and support for the pregnancy stage of your journey, and also for the parenting an infant or toddler parts, but at some point in your baby's first year you're likely to discover this: there's a big gap in advice and support for parenthood.

But aren't parenthood and parenting the same thing? I thought so too, at first. And then I discovered:

Parenting is about your relationship with your baby. Feeding, changing, settling. Learning their signals for hunger, tiredness and affection, that sort of thing. It's about figuring out and nurturing your little one as they grow through their different stages (newborn, baby, toddler, teen). You’ll probably find this stuff is actually pretty straight forward. A lot of it is instinct or common sense. And for the bits that aren’t, there’s plenty of great books, resources and professionals to guide you.

Parenthood,on the other hand, is about you. It's about you changing and settling into your new role. It's about how you grew up and what you want for your own family's future. Your hopes, dreams and beliefs. How you want to be. It's also about your partner - their changes, upbringing, hopes, dreams and being. And the new life you’re creating together. It's about figuring all this stuff out as you go and nurturing yourself and each other as YOUgrow as partners and parents.

But you don't have to figure it out on your own.

Professionals call it "the transition into parenthood". But what many don't realise is that there's stages in the transition and steps to manage each of the stages. We call it "Becoming Us." Click on the video below to find out more.

To discover where you are in your "Becoming Us" adventure,click on one of the options below.